So, if you are Ms. Tobias, the answer is no, the sword in your photos is not Masonic. Unfortunately, I only glanced at the photos for a few seconds before I stupidly deleted them. But I did look at them long enough to identify the symbols.
Monday, May 09, 2022
Fraternal Swords Aren't Always Masonic
So, if you are Ms. Tobias, the answer is no, the sword in your photos is not Masonic. Unfortunately, I only glanced at the photos for a few seconds before I stupidly deleted them. But I did look at them long enough to identify the symbols.
Thursday, May 05, 2022
Ohio's Chad Simpson Passes Away
While there's no official funeral home obituary available yet, Brother "bmkecck" on Reddit this week posted the following message that lists just a few of Chad's numerous Masonic accomplishments and associations:
Chad was Director of Program Development for the Grand Lodge of Ohio for almost 20 years, so was instrumental in implementing a number of things that are now standard in the jurisdiction: Candidate Counseling materials, the Master Craftsman Program, Officer's Manual; the written Code, Officer's Manual and Ancient Charges exams; PR funds-matching program, Lodge Education Officer's Manual, multiple education programs. He was editor of the Ohio Beacon Masonic newsletter, highly involved in the Midwest Conference on Masonic Education; one of the charter members of Arts and Sciences Lodge #792, Ohio's first 'TO Lodge (although they'll tell you that they aren't TO'; one of the founders of the Masonic Restoration Foundation and the Masonic Education Traveling Roadshow, among many, many other things in Ohio.
He was a Past Master of York Lodge #563, was given the honorary title of Immediate Past Master of Arts and Sciences #792 by unanimous resolution when the Lodge received it's charter; a past District Education Officer of the 14th Masonic District, was a Knight of the York Cross of Honor and received his 33rd degree from the Valley of Columbus in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Along with Chad Kopenski, they formed the often joked about 'Ohio Chads' to create programs, materials, and events in Masonic education. The 'Ohio Chads' were working together on next year's Midwest Conference on Masonic Education upon Brother Simpson's death.
He loved Freemasonry, was an avid concertina player and knitting enthusiast, was a fierce friend who saw the best in others and worked to help them see themselves the way that he saw them.
He is of that generation 'ago' so that many Masons here didn't know him or know of him; but, believe me, he was the kind of person that you'd appreciate having as a Brother and love having as a friend.
Chad Simpson was of those incredible people who touched countless lives and influenced so many others, often without realizing it himself. His death was quite sudden and unexpected. Please keep his wife Bridget and their family in your thoughts and prayers.
His column is broken, and his Brethren mourn.
Requiescat in pace.
UPDATE: Chad's official obituary was just posted on the funeral home's website HERE. It is reprinted below:
Chad Simpson, 49, of Columbus, passed away on May 2, 2022. He was born on February 2, 1973 to the late Robert Simpson and Shirley Osborne. In addition to his parents, Chad was preceded by his grandparents, Elmer and Betty Krebs; and his cats, Adah and Esther.
Chad was an active Freemason in Ohio, and worked at the Grand Lodge for nearly 18 years. Chad was a powerful influence and leader of Freemasonry, and a friend and mentor who left his imprint on thousands of lives. He was a perfectionist, and never shy with his opinion, yet his guidance was always given with love and humor.
In recent years, Chad was a part of the team at the Wesley Communities. He made a difference through his thoughtful approach to fundraising on behalf of the Communities, and changed lives by building a family amongst residents and staff alike, always willing to give a listening ear and a helping hand.
Chad recently took up hobbies including playing concertina and knitting, to the delight of family and friends. He had a lifelong love of cooking, a skill he first learned from his grandmother. Chad had a number of interests and hobbies that he shared freely with others, one of the wonderful things that made him such a unique and delightful person. And he had a special place in his heart for his kitty cats, whom he loved dearly.
Chad will be greatly missed by his loving wife of 18 ½ years, Bridget Simpson; brothers, Jerry (Katie) Grafe, Cory (Kate) Simpson, Casey Simpson, and Dan (Cindy) Simpson; nieces and nephews, Jenna and Madison Grafe, Megan (Wesley) Doyle, and Tyler, Chloe, and Addie Simpson, Josette, Joseph, Jacob, and Samantha Simpson, and Clare and Penelope Simpson; great nieces and nephews, Madeline Doyle, Grayson Sanborn, and Sophia Adame; father and mother in-law Louis and Margaret Sass; brother in-law Matthew (Samantha) Sass; and two cats, Ruthie and Lydia.
A Masonic Service will be held on Monday, May 16, 2022 at 5PM and a visitation will follow and go until 8PM at the Schoedinger Worthington funeral home, 6699 North High Street, Worthington OH, 43085. A visitation will be on Tuesday, May 17, 2022, from 11AM until 12PM at Wesley Glen Retirement Community, 5155 North High Street, Columbus OH, 43214. A Funeral Service will follow at 12PM. All are welcome at both services.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Chad Simpson Memorial Scholarship Fund (established in Chad’s name to support young scholars in our community – he received a Masonic scholarship as a youth, his first introduction to the kindness and brotherhood of Freemasonry) and the Wesley Glen Retirement Community Employee Emergency Fund (a fund Chad created at Wesley Glen that was especially important to him – to give, select the “Wesley Glen Other” designation and type “Employee Emergency Fund” in the comments).
Wednesday, May 04, 2022
Bazillionare Elon Musk Twitters "Freemasons"; Masons Go Wild
Ultimately, the downfall of the Freemasons was giving away their stonecutting services for nothing
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 3, 2022
Tuesday, May 03, 2022
GL of South Carolina Expels PGM Cal Disher
Illus. Michael Smith subsequently died on November 17, 2021. The following month, Past Grand Masters Cal Disher and Jay Adam Pearson were stripped of both the 33rd degree and Knight Commander of the Court of Honor (KCCH) by the Supreme Council of the Scottish Rite (SJ).
UPDATED: Irony At Its Most Ironic-est
Lodge Presents Charges Against South Carolina Grand Master and Officers
'The Plot Thickens' in the GL of South Carolina as Annual Meeting Looms
Breaking: S. Carolina PGM Mike Smith Expulsion Overturned; Lodges Restored
South Carolina PGMs Disher and Pearson Stripped of Scottish Rite Honors
Sunday, May 01, 2022
Hollywood's Newest Illumi-nuttiness
In the [Marvel] comics, the Illuminati were retconned to basically be responsible for trying to protect humanity and control things which saw various Marvel superheroes a part of the group in control of the Infinity Gems; however, their real-life counterparts, if you believe that sort of stuff, are hardly heroes as the Illuminati are said to be made up of racist Luciferians, pedophiles, high-level Freemasons, Jesuits, the Vatican, politicians, celebrities, sports figures, etc. who are bent on creating a new world order.
Wednesday, April 27, 2022
David Staples Resigning as U.G.L.E.'s CEO and Grand Secretary
I'm sorry to announce that David Staples (CEO) has decided to resign from his role as Chief Executive Officer for United Grand Lodge of England with effect from 14 April 2022 although he will remain as Grand Secretary until 14 September 2022 and will attend the investiture events.
David has commented as follows:
“Being the Chief Executive Officer of the UGLE has been a singular privilege and honour, and I feel, with the completion and imminent launch of the new UGLE strategy for the next seven years, the time has come to hand on the mantle to someone new so that I can embark on new opportunities.“The last four and a half years have seen an enormous rate of change within Freemasonry, and I am honoured to have been part of the journey. I have asked the President of the Board to allow me to step down as Chief Executive Officer and to begin the process for recruiting my successor to take the organisation forward into a new chapter of its history. Recognising my desire to move on to new and different challenges, he has kindly agreed. With leave of the Most Worshipful Grand Master, I will be continuing in my role as Grand Secretary until such time as a successor has been appointed in my stead, at which time, as is right and proper, I should expect to step down from office in his favour. I would like to thank you for your enormous hard work and support whilst in tenure and I wish you all, and the United Grand Lodge of England, the very best for the future.”
I would like to thank David for his hard work and commitment during his time in office, which has led to many positive improvements within Freemasonry. I wish him well in the future.
Geoffrey Dearing, President of the Board of General Purposes
Dr. David Staples has been a Freemason since 1997 when he was initiated into Apollo University Lodge No. 357 in Oxford. He later became Master of Middlesex Lodge No. 143 in 2006 and was appointed Metropolitan Grand Steward in 2011. He was was appointed to the newly created role of Chief Executive Officer of UGLE in September 2017, and invested as Grand Secretary (the youngest in UGLE's history) in April 2018. He quickly became the public face of the Freemasons in England.
Tuesday, April 26, 2022
Brother Seeks Kidney Transplant Donor
Twelve people die each day waiting for a kidney transplant.One of our Brothers is one of the 37 million people in the U.S. impacted by kidney disease.This Masonic brother is a young man who has dedicated his life to helping others. His weekends are full of activities like helping the homeless, fighting health care inequities, and caring for seniors. He is loved by his community and is on the path to create systematic changes in his community to help other people avoid healthcare disparities like the one he has suffered from. Despite this, his own health is beginning to deteriorate and a willing brother can be all the help he needs to save his life and keep him on his path.To give background about this young Brother, at a young age, he was diagnosed with kidney failure. He spent years waiting for a recipient through the long and tedious organ transplant process with no avail. Through these years he experienced what many would call living a half-life since his body would only allow him to operate at half capacity. This process found him at the DaVita dialysis center every other day having needles stuck into him to painfully remove toxins from his body, a process that takes hours. Thankfully, his luck changed and he was able to briefly function without dialysis.However, his fate yet again changed. He was recently informed that he has less than six months left with his kidney. He is desperately and urgently seeking a new kidney.Now he is reaching out to his Freemason brothers to save his life in order to invest his efforts to save the lives of others who may be in this similar situation.There are risks involved for a donor. But while becoming a living kidney donor may seem like a daunting endeavor, it is a safe procedure. For more information, please click here.If you, or anyone you know, can help save his life please send an email to kidneyhelp2@gmail.com.
There are scores of questions that a potential donor will have answered if they are a match for this Brother, but the very first step is to be tested to find out if it is even a possibility before considering going further. Some very general questions can be answered on the UNOS website. There are possible risks to the donor, as in any surgical procedure. But complications or additional surgeries for the donor are statistically tiny. Initial screening, testing, and pre-operative preparation can be done at a hospital in your own hometown, but the actual transplant will require traveling to the recipient's hospital and several overnight stays before and after the operation.
As Masons we are urged within the allegories of our ceremonies and obligations to know ourselves. We're not often asked to stretch to the farthest limits of our cabletows. Live kidney donation is not a decision to be taken lightly, because it does involve major surgery and a recovery period. But it's one of the greatest and most selfless gifts anyone can offer to make to another human being. Look in your heart, discuss it with your family, and consider giving this gift of life to our distressed Brother by contacting him directly at kidneyhelp2@gmail.com.
Tuesday, April 19, 2022
Crowdfunding Campaign for Indiana University's Center for Fraternal Collections & Research
So if you're interested in helping to support this new center, CLICK HERE to donate for #IUDay.
Sunday, April 10, 2022
Welcome Brothers: GL of Ohio Raises 780 in Statewide One Day Class
Origin
At the time, the bulk of Freemasons worldwide were aghast, and more than a few foreign grand bodies grumbled about perhaps withdrawing recognition of their U.S. counterparts that had held such mass raisings. While similarly massive events were overwhelmingly typical of degrees conferred on large classes of Scottish Rite members, the vast majority of Masons agreed that they were wholly inappropriate for new initiates into the fraternity. The three Symbolic Lodge degrees—especially for the Entered Apprentice and the Master Mason—were particularly considered to be individual and deeply personal experiences. At best, critics alleged, men made Masons in a day or two would undoubtedly be the fastest ones to leave. They would fail to become proficient in the required memory work. If they remained members at all, they certainly would cease to participate, much less take on the requirements to become officers. Lodges that relied on such classes to do all of their degree work for them would quickly lose any ability to confer their own degrees forever. In short, the naysayers claimed, the entire fraternity would be both cheapened and robbed—from the candidates themselves, right down to the lodges and their own members.
Ohio's Record-Setting Class of 2002
Ohio’s colossal one-day increase was never again equaled anywhere. They staged two more such events in 2003 and 2005, and studied the after-effects at the end of 2006. In a little more than five years, one-day Masons raised at their three events alone represented more than 10% of Ohio’s total Masonic membership. While their two subsequent classes never came close to equaling their enormous premiere event, other jurisdictions still looked enviously at Ohio and judged them a triumph. Numerically speaking, anyway.
Results
A study was conducted in 2001 by Paul M. Bessel for the Grand Lodge of the District of Columbia, which was the first of its kind to analyze the long-term results of such conferrals. Their grand lodge was unique, since they had conducted two-day degree events annually for eight years and had the data to analyze. Bessel found that the retention and participation rate of members initiated, passed, and raised in the slower, traditional manner, versus the Grand Master’s Class candidates, were statistically identical. Subsequent years demonstrated the same results, clearly disproving objections based only upon fears that dejected Master Masons who were disappointed or unimpressed by their one day experience would vanish faster than their traditionally raised brethren.
Other jurisdictions that bothered to investigate their own circumstances and results came to the same conclusions. Ohio did its own study in 2007, five years after their record setting class. In the three Grand Master’s Classes held between 2002 and 2005, they found that 8% of one-day class members were serving or had already served as lodge officers. That worked out to more than 1,000 officers in their 534 lodges, or almost two officers per lodge. The actual numbers among lodges varied—several reported as many as five of their current officers were one-day members.
As of 2017, my own Grand Lodge of Indiana has raised a total of 6,976 Master Masons via one-day events since its first in 1997. Of those, 3,958 still remain Masons across those twenty years. Many have been officers and Worshipful Masters, and all have simply been as active or inactive as their traditionally-made brethren. To date, there have been several grand masters all across the U.S. who received their degrees at one-day events.
That which was lost
One-day classes were developed largely in response to the screams of lodges over membership losses and their own inability to confer their own degree work. So, those early massive classes did exactly what the lodges begged for—they brought in new members, by the bucketful. One day classes will only end if lodges stop demanding them. As I've said repeatedly, if you have a visceral reaction against the practice, fault the lodge who sent him to the class, not the candidate who is now your Brother.